Canning and preserving food. Includes dehydrating, freeze-drying, etc.
Made a bigger batch than usual this time, 24 jars total. Besides pickles (which I've made lots of), I also tried garlic, radishes, bell pepper and cabbage for this round.
I love the colour of the red cabbage especially. Can't wait to try them in a few weeks
Made some peach fruit leather. Just blended peaches. I've never had fruit leather break like that. What happened? How can I fix it?
Had to use up some kitchen leftovers today. Super pleased with how it turned out!
In the making:
Edit: Here’s the recipe. I couldn’t find a recipe that didn’t use already-made dill pickles, so I combined several recipes instead. I used the National Center for Home Food Preservation’s vinegar solution ratios for sweet pickles to make sure the pH was safe. Then I used a combo of spices from a sweet dill recipe and a sweet horseradish recipe.
My dill plants didn’t do well this year, so I used dried. It’s important to note, I’ve never made this recipe before and since I just canned yesterday I don’t know yet whether it’s good.
Makes 4-5 pint jars
Strawberry honey butter! My first attempt at this recipe from the Ball canning website. It's delicious, think it'll go great on waffles and ice cream! It's a bit runny, but that's fine!
Made the yearly candied jalapeños! Well, half of them as the place I get the jalapeños from only barely had 4lbs, let alone 8lbs.
From the bones of a couple Costco rotisserie chickens and veggie scraps saved in the freezer. Only boiled the bones for a couple hours, so didn't get as much gelatin out of them as I'd like, but it was getting late. I also thought I had more pint jars, had to put the last bit of stock into a couple quart jars in the fridge.
Is it possible to mix jar sizes when canning? Assuming you process them all using timing for the larger jar size?
[Image description: five pint jars of opaque tan broth, still slightly bubbling as they cool on a towel on a kitchen counter. In the background a stock pot and an All American 910 can be seen.]
A batch of ginger & citrus marmalade I made today, plus some ginger tea as a byproduct!
Wrote 23 on three jars before realizing.
Pictured is stewed tomato, salsa, spaghet sauce, tomato juice, marinara, ketchup, pickles, cranberries, gooseberry jam and ancient peaches from years gone. All sourced from a pretty modest sized garden. Not shown is sauerkraut and frozen corn
My last batch was from two years ago, so I need to get on it and make more! Hopefully the 20lbs for 15 dollars is still a deal at the roadside stand where I get the apples!
Candied jalapeños from last year! Great with crackers and cream cheese
Week by week, my dragon's hoard grows (there are another 6 quart jars of canned peaches not in the picture)
Just apples, pumpkin, peanut butter and some spices... this was a fun afternoon project, and they turned out delicious!
Been wanting an All American for ages, and keeping an eye on local ads finally paid off! Thinking of getting back some precious freezer space and starting off by canning some stock.
[Image description: a brand-new looking All American canner 910 sitting on a kitchen counter]
(Humble brag intro)
Today I was able to score used All American 921 and 910 canners for $35 picked up! The canners were sold but the niece of the original owner with no known history.
In doing my research, my understanding is that this brand is built solid! That said, does anyone have experience giving an all American canner a tune up?
My general approach:
Is there anything else you’d recommend?
TIA!
My cold room. Bottom shelf is dehydrated food, the rest is pickled food and jams.
So many jams...
Too many jams...
Definitely not recent, but I figured I could help get some content going. So here is my jam shelf from the Covid times. Jam making is a hobby of mine in the summer and I went a little wild with flavors that year since there wasn't anything else to do and I could send them to people.
Top shelf from left to right: Lemon Curd, Port Plum, Apricot, Strawberry Zinfandel, Peach Bourbon, Verry Berry, Peach, (small jar) apple butter from the year before, (large jar) Chili sauce, raspberry.
On the bottom shelf are various garnishes for cocktails that I didn't really can so much, but I thought I would list for those curious. (If you like cocktails, join us over on !cocktails@midwest.social). From left to right of what I can see: Smoked Salt, Cinnamon Sticks, Whole Nutmeg, Dried Lime Wheels, Candied Ginger, Tea Pot.
Not pictured: That years apple butter batch! I always make a massive batch of apple butter when my parents apples ripen. It often makes about 20 jars!
